The nearest book was The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir. I've been interested in Henry VIII since visiting the Tower of London on my honeymoon in England. She also wrote The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

p. 123

#5It had not been forgotten how Dr. Mallet had celebrated mass in Mary's absence. Shortly afterwards a Master Benett of Ware told the Council that he had heard of a Catholic conspiracy headed by the Earl of Shrewsbury; he believed that the Lady Mary would join it.

#6Mary, of course, was not involved, but the councillors were fearful that her house might become a focus for disaffected Catholic nobles.

#7It was mainly for this reason that they did not want outsiders to be admitted to mass.

#8Late in April 1551, Dr. Mallet was arrested and sent to the Tower.

{Yikes, that was a dramatic ending to my four sentences -you don't want to be sent to the Tower!!!!}

Saturday, November 29, 2008

I spent the first part of Thanksgiving with my husband's family at his aunt and uncle's house. They present a very beautiful and bountiful table. The food kept coming and coming and coming!

The children in the family make the place cards for the table. This is mine. It's so cute! My family is much less formal with Thanksgiving (still fun though), but it was nice to have such details on the table.

By FAR my favorite piece of the table was the salt and pepper shakers. Each person gets his or her own salt and pepper shaker - some 100 years old! This was mine. The little sewing machine drawers come out and hold the salt and pepper. Who even knew such a salt and pepper shaker existed! I wanted to take it home with me!

This is me with my lovely mother-in-law who is visiting from Virginia for the week. More to come!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Yes, I was very nearly drowned by report cards and conferences, but I am alive to tell my story. But it's so boring no one would ever want to hear it!

I have come out the other side, though, and am ready to craft craft craft until Christmas. I've got 95% of a bag for my husband's grandmother finished, so pictures to come. I'm working on matching sister dresses for my husband's boss. She gave me these beautiful coral-colored velvetish fabric remnants. I think at one time it was upholstery, so I kind of feel like Mammy making Scarlett's "I need money - yes, money IS green" drapery dress.

I also have 6 bags to make on my BEFORE I start Christmas projects list! Yikes! Dum dee dum! I'm not stressed at ALL!

I have two blog awards to put up later! Woo hoo! Thanks ladies!I want to knit something. A friend (Hi Mary!) and coworker of mine fixed my knitting knowledge, so I'm ready and raring to follow a pattern (which I've never done before). I'll be back later with awards and other items!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

One of the reasons I've been silent here for a bit is that it was my husband's birthday on Monday so I was working on a little present for him (Just some fleece PJs which he is wearing right now). Just couldn't blog about it until I gave them to him! He is also the proud and obsessive owner of an ipod touch and I'm the jealous, covetous wife that gave it to him! Man, that thing is cool!

The birthday boy:

I also got one of my "Don't you even think about Christmas until your to do list is finished" items checked off. My mom has a friend who likes cardinals, but my mom could only find cardinal Christmas fabric, so she had me make her a Christmas Oiseaux bag. I didn't really anticipate the bird theme taking over this bag, but I guess sometimes projects take on a life of their own!In other random news, I saw the oddest craft product in the Joanns catalog that came to my house the other day. It's a rotary cutter with speakers. And an ipod dock. Really. I use my paper trimmer a lot, but I have never looked at it and said, "Golly, I wish you had speakers!" Maybe this will be useful to someone?? Maybe I will get it for my husband for Christmas for his new ipod ;) It's very cute though!Up next is the coffee pot rotary cutter for those late night crops!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Hmmmm.... how does Christmas come so quickly every year? It's like July then BAM Christmas! I've got lots of ideas milling around in my head, but will I get to them? I think I need to write down the "I can't even think about Christmas until I do these things" LIST.

Then I have a million and two other things that I had wanted done by now. AND I'm thinking up new projects! I have sewing ADD.

Here's one:

I want to repurpose this dress. It has never fit me properly. It's been too loose on top and too short on the bottom. It brings with it lots and lots of pretty crisp cotton fabric though! I've never repurposed anything except a sheet I bought to make into pillow shams. This would be a real "take something I used for one purpose and make it into another purpose" project....

My husband calls these "bonus projects" - projects I'm too busy to accomplish but I make them my priority anyway. Any ideas for this dress?

In other random news:*We bought a portable dishwasher, so now I feel like I have a maid!*I have a lot of grape and strawberry nerds because they were on sale November 1st*What is with the baby boom? I've heard of at least five new pregnancies in the past week or two... plus I already knew at least five pregnant women...* I'm entertaining thoughts of democracy actually being a bad thing from a Biblical worldview... Has a government run by the people upset God's pattern of theocracy/ monarchy, thus taking us away from serving one sovereign power, and thus leading to this religion run by the people "everyone can believe what they want" postmodernist mumbo jumbo? Just askin'......*Getting my hair cut on Wednesday!

This has certainly been a disorganized and random post, but everyone's entitled to one of those once in a while!And some campaigning - Chuck Norris for president!